Looks like a bot of some sort is mass following people (it started following me).

Not sure if it is the same bot or not, I got a pm from a bot trying to click on some suspicious link.

A bot started following me 20 Dec 2016; it joined that day and is following 8089 members. Others who are reporting this issue elsewhere in the forums (Has Renderosity Been Hacked) have had their bank accounts hacked, including me (5 Dec); I remain unclear, obviously, as to any connection between the bot and the the hack of my account, and I remain unclear that my bank account was hacked through Rendo (perhaps DAZ or runtimedna). The bots' number of members followed has not increased since I noticed this on 20 December.

Hello,

I have found all the clones I could and banned them all.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience.

Warmest Regards,

KristiS posted at 5:41AM Sat, 24 December 2016 - #4293323

Hello,

I have found all the clones I could and banned them all.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience.

Warmest Regards,

nope, as i stated in another thread dunno where now 1-2 days ago, https://www.renderosity.com/?uid=863870 JolettEllis3 is still there following me.

and i've been hacked too, i wrote in the hack thread, i wrote 2 mails to store that bounced back and finally ffw all in a mail to admin. haven't got any answer in over 3 days!! i'm sick of this! no time to spend writing y'all :(( - now i'm supposed to what, write this all again to someone else, as you advised to do in the hack thread i.e. write you? pffffffffffff.

right now, renderosity is under my strong suspicion to have been compromised, whatever security you have. because daz has not only certified me immediately nothing was wrong with them (while i got no answer here or to my mails), they also don't have mass bot following people, putting porn urls etc. rendo does. and over there i have seen no thread about being hacked either (that i know of).

in short, my contact with rendo has been very very annoying and bothersome the past week or two - while in 1 week i got awesome freebies of store quality from daz for meanwhile a value of 329.65 $, 28 items , just like that. which is awesome, cuz without my debit card that was cancelled (can't afford a new one), i can't buy s*. and one of my fav vendors here, my wishlist bursts with his creations, had a 50% sale. deviant had a membership sale too. :((

and now, holiday time and weekend anyway, nothing admin will work here until earliest tuesday, so i won't expect any answers :/

luckily, i already had my xmas present. from daz.

KristyGibson9 is following me.

@maneki_neko - I am sorry as we have not received any emails from you as if we did, we would have responded.

They are still showing they are following you because you have to remove them from your list of followers however they are banned.

Please send me an email directly to provide me with all information as to why you believe you got hacked through our site.

As of August 2015, we have upped our security to the highest level of security. Files get overwritten with each update (which can be up to 3 times a day), we added the secure https to every web page, we store all files on the cloud so they are not on our database, and we go through paypal to process ALL payments whether it be credit card or paypal. We also do not store any CC details on our site which is why you have to enter your payment details each time you place an order,

This person is still active who joined dec 20 and followed 7064 people. https://www.renderosity.com/?uid=863847

Also I cannot find how to remove/ block someone who follows me. Can you please explain how?

KristiS posted at 6:47PM Sat, 24 December 2016 - #4293466

@maneki_neko - I am sorry as we have not received any emails from you as if we did, we would have responded.

**WHAT?? ** either you're joking, or not only your purchase system and your database have been hacked, but also your mail server - because, as i stated, i sent 2 mails to store at renderosity.com, both bounced back with a mailer-daemon mail ( Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender ) , so i finally forwarded the whole mail thread to admin at renderosity.com, on Mon, 19 Dec 2016 16:31:34

Please send me an email directly to provide me with all information as to why you believe you got hacked through our site.

i can forward you the mail i sent to admin. but of course it won't _prove _i was hacked here, since i also mentioned i shopped at 3 other stores, 1 (DAZ) wrote me back certifying they weren't compromised, 1 hasn't written back (RDNA) since they're closing shop and are surely extremely busy and maybe i didn't get the right addy of whoever is still there, 1 is CP content paradise, i only recharged my download right since i almost never buy there, and i dunno how to contact them simply, they're intricate with smithmicro.

what makes me believe it happened here is 1) it already happened recently 2) all your informatics systems seem to be compromised at the moment 3) many people have been hacked recently, some of which only shopped here. in my world, 2+2 usually equal 4. even if no mathematician is here to PROVE it.

As of August 2015, we have upped our security to the highest level of security. Files get overwritten with each update (which can be up to 3 times a day), we added the secure https to every web page, we store all files on the cloud so they are not on our database, and we go through paypal to process ALL payments whether it be credit card or paypal. We also do not store any CC details on our site which is why you have to enter your payment details each time you place an order,

tech savy people have answered to that on different threads, obviously there still is a leak, i won't argue that you did it, but who knows if it works ~

BOT: how do i de-follow my stalker? i searched on all user interfaces, i can follow them but no idea how to de-follow from their side, please explain.

I have MoniqueWatson12 just started following me.

I'd also like to know how to de-follow them.

I tried to mail renderosity and my emails were bounced also.

A block feature would be nice. Why was this removed?

And I see MoniqueWatson12 is STILL here. MoniqueWatson12 https://www.renderosity.com/?uid=864204

I'm glad I have sitemails from this place turned off or my inbox would be full of spam.

Hello,

This person is banned, to remove them from your list of followers, please go to your profile, click on "Followers" find them in the list and hit the "unfollow" button.

I was not aware the block feature was turned off so I will have to test this and then get with the programmer if I see an issue.

Thank you,

For me there is no Unfollow button, just a follow button.

And my follower still seems to be active JodiWallet3

That member was also deleted. What makes you believe they are still active? have you gotten any new notifications or other communications from them? Let us know please.

The fact that their Profile is still active and they have a follow button. And how do I unfollow them please.

To unfollow them you would go to your avatar/View Profile. Then click on the following or followers number. There you will see options to delete those you are following.

I cannot find their profile. Can you send me a link to it please?

This is a bug, they are banned and I have entered this into our programming list so it can be fixed.

Warmest Regards,

This is a link to their profile https://www.renderosity.com/?uid=863972

I am aware their profile is still showing as it is on the programmer's list of things to fix. This member is banned and so are all of the clones associated with this account.

Warmest Regards,

KristiS posted at 1:02AM Wed, 28 December 2016 - #4293466

As of August 2015, we have upped our security to the highest level of security. Files get overwritten with each update (which can be up to 3 times a day), we added the secure https to every web page, we store all files on the cloud so they are not on our database, and we go through paypal to process ALL payments whether it be credit card or paypal. We also do not store any CC details on our site which is why you have to enter your payment details each time you place an order,

Highest level of security? Firefox is reporting this site as "not safe". Rendo failed in setting up a secure https-connection (not that https is an absolute guarantee for secureness, but Rendo failed on a much lower level).

I am followed by CandicePeterson2 -- joined Dec 20 with 7,700 followers and a tiny URL in the profile. Please delete this user. Obviously a bot hoping to entice a click on the URL, which how cybercriminals download malware to their victims' machines. Here's the profile page

https://www.renderosity.com/?uid=863866

As many have commented above, there is no "unfollow" button on users' pages to delete such bots.

Or site and FireFox is not really compatible since FireFox's latest update. The problems are inconsistent so it makes it very hard to track down and fix the problem.

Without being able to recreate it/them, it makes it extremely hard to correct. Please see the attached screenshot (notice the https in the search bar), it will show that we actual do have a safe site and we did indeed setup a secure https connection as I stated in my previous post.

are you guys for real?

everywhere you can read "if you have any issues blah blah please contact us".

i was hacked on december the 3-4th, wrote in the forums, it took a while but i git a kinda halfway answer - who knows if it's accurate, based on certitudes and not beliefs, and not pure fan service...

i also wrote 2 mails to the advised address store @ rendo, both bounced back undelivered. i forwarded those to admin @ rendo, it didn't bounce but i NEVER got an answer. i mentioned that here, Krisit write me above to write her a mail - I DID, ON THE 24TH, I.E. 5 DAYS AGO, AND I STILL DIDN'T RECEIVE EVEN 1 LINE MAIL BACK!!. first i thought oh well everyone in away in holidays, but i see here now new posts in this thread dated from the 28th.

daz answered immediately. i got a mail from rdna today despite the stress they must have with closing. - and both are positive nothing happened there. but here, all i get are lukewarm pseudotech explanations i can't prove right or wrong, and a flurry of "regards", of "please contact us", of verbal bowing - and not one single email back. useless to say i'm beyond pissed off, ignoring me is never a good idea.

besides, i still have that dumb b*ch bot JolettEllis3 following me, i was told to unfollow her since she (or it) has been banned, i asked for advice on how to do it above on the 24ht, and i still haven't got a direct answer to that one either. is it my job to skim the forum to get rid of a bot that this sieve of a system has let in, together with whatever has probably installed a hacking back door? imho, NO. i awaited a post back with a step to step answer.

this sucks big time, coupled with my over 80% certitude the leak happened here, and if it wasn't for the creators here among my favorites ever, who sell their very original awesome products exclusively here, like Coflek-Gnorg, Cybertenko or Dante78, to mention those whose items fill my wishlist and my runtime, but there are others too, i would delete my account. alas, i am greedy, and i have ogled those goodies so avidly i can't resolve myself to forget about them.

i'm not going to waste my time more on the forums tonight, instead, i'm going to play with a few of the 36 items (value 427.25 $) i got for FREE no strings attached during DAZ's week before xmas. and i can tell you that if that amazing gift surprise hadn't per pure chance happened and soothed me in this month where i couldn't buy 1 single item anywhere abroad, non-3d sites included, and missed many bargains i had been partly waiting for - since my debit card has been cancelled and i can't afford a new one - i would have been A LOT LOUDER HERE until i could exactly pinpoint what happened, where, and who exactly f*d up - to ask for compensation. whatever. i will still follow developments and posts ~ and guess what, i don't feel like "controlling myself", and i am very probably the worst person - i can live with it shrug

I have not seen an email from you and I apologize. I will have to check our email server to be sure it is not blocking it as spam.

I am very sorry this has happened to you, I truly am.

All of our programmers, the VP, and the owner of the company has scrubbed all files, checked all servers, etc and continue to do it daily to be sure there was not any infiltration on our site.

You could have used your card in September and it could’ve taken some time for them to get to your card if they had others.

My husband’s card was hacked 2 weeks before Christmas and the only place he used it was the gas station. The month before that he ordered something online. We aren’t sure if it was from the gas station or an online purchase since they came up with those skimmers or whatever it’s called. Unfortunately, now days, you just can’t be sure it happened right after you used it somewhere. People are coming up with ways to steal card information everywhere and it is terrible.

I was not giving half way answers as I have posted the security measures we put in place after we were hacked a year ago and have one of the most secure online stores one can have. I am not saying we are the most however we are right up there now with some of the highest leveled security sites as we took quite a few extra measures most do not to keep our customer, vendors, and ourselves as protected as possible.

There have been some sites you listed that were hacked before and never admitted it, we did admit it and did everything in our power to help ensure it does not happen again.

As far as the accounts that were banned, if you go to your profile and click on “followers” it will pull the list of people following you, click on the “unfollow” button and this will take them off the list. If you do not see where it reads "unfollow" and it reads "follow" or is completely gone from your list, the programmer got to this quickly and they are no longer on your list at all.

I'd also like to add that I have asked for CC details from you and the others who jumped in saying they know it was us (mainly because it was over a year ago) so I can contact the financial institutions and have not received any emails with this information.

The accounts are closed (according to you all) so the information is not valid any longer.

Warmest Regards,

You can site mail it to me if you'd like to be sure I get it.

I will also need the name and phone number of the financial institution.

KristiS posted at 2:19AM Fri, 30 December 2016 - #4293810

Or site and FireFox is not really compatible since FireFox's latest update. The problems are inconsistent so it makes it very hard to track down and fix the problem.

Your shop site seems to be okay with Firefox (green lock, verified by GoDaddy.com). The community part is not safe; there are some elements whiich come from a non ssl-site. I'm sorry to not be more helpful, but Firefox doesn't go any further than stating that mixed contend is "unsafe".

I still see MeganBurnett12 following me. I don't see an "unfollow" button. How do I get rid of this person, or bot, or whatever it is? Thanks.

I am being followed by kristygibson9, how can I get rid of this

Kristi -- You repeat the advice to click on the "unfollow" button, but don't seem to listen when people tell you there is no "unfollow" button. Here's a screenshot of my follower that I cannot get rid of

We are looking into this. I'll come back and let you know what will be done.

Thank you for letting me know Kentauros...I see what you are talking about. When I am at the main gallery page, I get the lock however when I click on an individual image, I get the "i" before the https. I believe it is because there is no information one can access through the galleries since there is not any information (payment) saved on our site so nothing is at risk. All areas of the site your payment information is entered is locked and secured.

This happens to me on other sites as well, I do not get a lock until I hit the checkout page.

@ReneJW - If you see “follow”, this means they are not following you.

We realize you can still see them on your list and their profile, they are banned and I have talked about removing them completely from the system when someone is banned with the programmer yesterday.

Warmest regards and Happy New Year 

Hi Kristi,there is an another problem I think...I noticed that the new registered persons have the same problem. I could believe that it's systematic. My last three purchasers have the same calamities and as they are new I doubt that they are conscious for that . Just to warn you . Best regards

I just got a likely bot following me - AmandaPerry5 has nothing in profile, and I want to block.

Link on her profile to trade nude pix!

KristiS posted at 5:09AM Wed, 04 January 2017 - #4293910

I have not seen an email from you and I apologize. I will have to check our email server to be sure it is not blocking it as spam.

I am very sorry this has happened to you, I truly am.

All of our programmers, the VP, and the owner of the company has scrubbed all files, checked all servers, etc and continue to do it daily to be sure there was not any infiltration on our site.

You could have used your card in September and it could’ve taken some time for them to get to your card if they had others.

My husband’s card was hacked 2 weeks before Christmas and the only place he used it was the gas station. The month before that he ordered something online. We aren’t sure if it was from the gas station or an online purchase since they came up with those skimmers or whatever it’s called. Unfortunately, now days, you just can’t be sure it happened right after you used it somewhere. People are coming up with ways to steal card information everywhere and it is terrible.

I was not giving half way answers as I have posted the security measures we put in place after we were hacked a year ago and have one of the most secure online stores one can have. I am not saying we are the most however we are right up there now with some of the highest leveled security sites as we took quite a few extra measures most do not to keep our customer, vendors, and ourselves as protected as possible.

There have been some sites you listed that were hacked before and never admitted it, we did admit it and did everything in our power to help ensure it does not happen again.

As far as the accounts that were banned, if you go to your profile and click on “followers” it will pull the list of people following you, click on the “unfollow” button and this will take them off the list. If you do not see where it reads "unfollow" and it reads "follow" or is completely gone from your list, the programmer got to this quickly and they are no longer on your list at all.

well, both the hacking and the bot thing have been extremely unnerving. not to mention the weird email chaos. 3 reasons to think somebody hacked your system. i can't be certain or prove where the hacking of my dcard happened, guess i never will. however, my trust has dwindled to nada.

it's over a month, and right now i don't care. i have to deal with a sad loss and other tough sh* like a harsh winter in a very old "flat" and no cash in real life, so whatever, i'm sick and tired of this here, hence i won't read forums or bother mailing for a while until i have the nerve for it. no need to answer since i won't read it. right now, i have other priorities :/ and bickering won't change anything anyway.

I don't do this "following thing"... not even sure what is is for, or what it does... BUT I just noticed that a member: AngelaCain1 only joined YESTERDAY, and has over 500 she's following and I'm one of her latest... have NO idea who she is... but it's creepy. :(

Another bot sighted... AmandaWebber7

These guys are really desperate for traffic, and I really hope it only ends at that, and that it doesn't hinder the growth and wellbeing of the community anymore.

Thank you admins for all your hard work, and let's all together get through this.

I still have only one, "AbbyBrown6" following me and I can't get rid of her. There is no "unfollow" button to click on anywhere. I'm seriously ready to bail out of Renderosity for good, which is sad because there are some really good things in the Marketplace that I would like to buy. Just a few minutes ago, I emptied my Wishlist. This is really sad for the vendors who stand a chance of losing some of their income. It doesn't appear that the techs are doing anything to fix this.

I just checked and I have a second follower (ElizabethThomas5) as of January 15. This is getting frustrating and I don't feel comfortable buying anything else from Renderosity until this problem is fixed. You might consider hiring an expert in cyber security to check your site and see what the problem is. I know you said you don't store credit card information on your site but I'm wondering if these "followers" are able to snatch the credit card information as you are typing it in when you purchase something. There are so many things at Renderosity I would still like to buy but just don't feel comfortable coming here anymore.

The "follower" part is broken. I apparently have 2 followers (according to my profile), and when I click to see the followers, I only see one, "Store Staff". Means I have one stealth, invisible follower (stalker?)...

Though I think I know his/her name: Some "KristiPresha11" started following me since December 24, but doesn't show on the list of my followers, so I can't get rid of it. That's sloppy coding. What other feature on the site doesn't work as intended? You might really want to make a security audit.

ReneJW posted at 5:39PM Tue, 17 January 2017 - #4295274

I just checked and I have a second follower (ElizabethThomas5) as of January 15. This is getting frustrating and I don't feel comfortable buying anything else from Renderosity until this problem is fixed. You might consider hiring an expert in cyber security to check your site and see what the problem is. I know you said you don't store credit card information on your site but I'm wondering if these "followers" are able to snatch the credit card information as you are typing it in when you purchase something. There are so many things at Renderosity I would still like to buy but just don't feel comfortable coming here anymore.

From what I was told the programmer is busy with something 'big' and can't get to this problem until that is dealt with.

PS.... I also have NO idea what the hullabaloo about PayPal is... my paypal is working properly, my cards (that I ONLY USE VIA PAYPAL AND ARE NOT NOT NOT DEBIT CARDS) ... be safe folks... !

PS my creepy follower: AngelaCain1 seems to have been removed for me, thank you for the help.

Lyne posted at 8:41PM Tue, 17 January 2017 - #4295395

PS my creepy follower: AngelaCain1 seems to have been removed for me, thank you for the help.

Interesting, obviously it can be done - but I've still got mine.

I'd really like to even see mine. Doesn't show in the follower list, but I know it's there because of the total number of followers I have (more than I can see). Stealthy...

Is it ever going to be fixed so that unwanted banned followers can be removed I still have mine and no way that I can see to remove them.

I have a follower that joined in Jan. Need this removed guys.